Thick fish atlas

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Linda van der Nat

This week saw the launch in IJmuiden of the Fish Atlas of the Celtic Sea, North Sea and Baltic Sea. This reference book of over 570 pages describes 200 fish species. This is the first time so much data on these seas has been brought together.

The book is the work of 31 researchers from 8 countries who worked on it for 40 years, casting their nets 72,000 times. The now retired senior researcher at Imares Henk Heessen worked on the project for many years. In the first place, the reference work is for marine ecologists but it is also of interest to politicians and lovers of the sea and of fish.